JP2022161561A - Optical fiber ribbon, and manufacturing method of optical fiber ribbon - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide an optical fiber ribbon capable of suppressing a reduction of loss characteristics even when a cut is made between the optical fiber core wires, and a manufacturing method of an optical fiber ribbon.SOLUTION: There is provided an optical fiber ribbon 100 in which multiple optical fiber core wires 110 each having a glass fiber 111 and a fiber coating layer 112 covering the outer periphery of the glass fiber 111 are placed in parallel to integrate the multiple optical fiber core wires 110 with a common coating layer. The average adhesion force between the fiber coating layer 112 of the optical fiber core wire 110 and the common coating layer 120 is 99.9 mN or more.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to an optical fiber tape core wire and a method for manufacturing an optical fiber tape core wire.

Conventionally, in an optical fiber tape core wire in which a plurality of optical fiber core wires are arranged in a parallel line and integrated by a common coating, cuts extending in the longitudinal direction are intermittently provided between adjacent optical fiber core wires. A fiber tape core wire is known (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2012-208310 A

The above cuts in the optical fiber tape core wires are formed by intermittently inserting a cutter blade between the adjacent optical fiber core wires of the optical fiber tape core wires integrated by the common coating.
However, shearing stress generated between the cutter blade and the optical fiber tape when the cutter blade is inserted between the optical fibers causes not only cuts to be formed between the optical fibers, but also optical fiber The common coating applied to the tape core wire may peel off from the optical fiber core wire.
When the common coating is peeled off, when the optical fiber tape core wire is wound around the bobbin, the peeled fragment is caught between the optical fiber tape core wires, causing a microbend, which causes loss characteristics of the optical fiber core wire. may decrease.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and provides an optical fiber tape core wire capable of suppressing a decrease in loss characteristics even when a cut is made between the optical fiber core wires, and an optical fiber tape core wire. Its purpose is to provide a method for producing the

The optical fiber tape core wire of the present disclosure has a plurality of optical fiber core wires each having a glass fiber and a fiber coating layer covering the outer periphery of the glass fiber, and the plurality of optical fiber core wires are arranged in parallel with a common coating layer. An integrated optical fiber tape core wire, wherein a common coating layer that integrates the optical fiber core wires is coated on the fiber coating layer of the optical fiber core wire, and the fiber colored layer of the optical fiber core wire and the The average adhesion force to the common coating layer is 99.9 mN or more.

A method for manufacturing an optical fiber tape core wire of the present disclosure comprises: arranging in parallel a plurality of optical fiber core wires each having a glass fiber and a fiber coating layer covering the outer circumference of the glass fiber; A method for manufacturing an optical fiber tape core wire integrated with a common coating layer made of a curable resin, wherein the plurality of glass fiber core wires coated with the ultraviolet curable resin have an illuminance linear velocity ratio of 10.8 J/cm ² . Irradiate with UV light as follows.

According to the above, it is possible to provide an optical fiber tape core wire and a method for manufacturing an optical fiber tape core wire, in which deterioration of loss characteristics is suppressed even if a cut is made between the optical fiber core wires.

1 is a schematic diagram of an optical fiber ribbon manufacturing apparatus according to an aspect of the present disclosure; FIG. 2 is a perspective cross-sectional view of the optical fiber cable shown in FIG. 1; FIG. FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective cross-sectional view of the optical fiber tape cable core shown in FIG. 1 ; FIG. 4 is a plan view of the optical fiber ribbon shown in FIG. 3; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a method of measuring adhesion between a fiber colored layer and a common coating layer of an optical fiber ribbon. 4 is a table summarizing the relationship between the linear velocity ratio of illuminance, the adhesion between the fiber colored layer and the common coating layer of the optical fiber tape core wire, and the loss characteristic. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the optical fiber tape core wire showing a state in which the common coating layer is peeled off from the optical fiber core wire;

[Description of Embodiments of the Present Disclosure]
First, the contents of the embodiments of the present disclosure will be listed and explained.
The optical fiber tape core wire of the present disclosure includes (1) a plurality of optical fiber core wires having a glass fiber and a fiber coating layer covering the outer periphery of the glass fiber are arranged in parallel to share the plurality of optical fiber core wires. An optical fiber tape core wire integrated with a coating layer, wherein an average adhesion force between the fiber coating layer of the optical fiber core wire and the common coating layer is 99.9 mN or more.
In the optical fiber tape core wire configured in this way, the average value of the adhesion force between the fiber coating layer of the optical fiber core wire and the common coating layer is 99.9 mN or more, so that the light of the optical fiber tape core wire Since the common coating layer is difficult to separate from the fiber coating layer of the optical fiber core when cutting between the fibers, when the optical fiber tape core wire with cuts between the optical fibers is wound around the bobbin , it is possible to suppress the deterioration of the loss characteristic of the optical fiber core wire due to the fragment of the common coating layer being caught.

(2) In the above-mentioned optical fiber tape core wire, the common coating layer is intermittently cut to connect the adjacent optical fiber core wires to the connecting region where the adjacent optical fiber core wires are connected to each other. Non-connected regions spaced apart from each other are intermittently formed in the longitudinal direction.
As a result, intermittent light is formed intermittently in the longitudinal direction by connecting regions connecting adjacent optical fiber core wires and non-connecting regions separating adjacent optical fiber core wires. A fiber tape core wire can be manufactured while suppressing deterioration of loss characteristics of the optical fiber core wire.

(3) A plurality of optical fiber core wires each having a glass fiber and a fiber coating layer covering the outer circumference of the glass fiber are arranged in parallel to form the plurality of optical fiber core wires. A method for manufacturing an optical fiber tape core wire in which wires are integrated with a common coating layer made of an ultraviolet curable resin, wherein the plurality of glass fiber cords coated with the ultraviolet curable resin have an illuminance linear velocity ratio of 10.8 J. /cm ² or less.
According to the method for manufacturing an optical fiber tape core wire configured as described above, ultraviolet rays are applied to a plurality of glass fiber core wires coated with an ultraviolet curable resin so that the illumination linear velocity ratio is 10.8 J/cm ² or less. By irradiating, the average value of adhesion between the fiber coating layer of the optical fiber core wire and the common coating layer becomes 99.9 mN or more, which is common when cutting between the optical fiber core wires of the optical fiber tape core wire. Because the coating layer is difficult to separate from the fiber coating layer of the optical fiber core wire, when the optical fiber tape core wire with cuts between the optical fiber core wires is wound around the bobbin, a fragment of the common coating layer is caught. It is possible to suppress the deterioration of the loss characteristic of the optical fiber core wire.

[Details of the embodiment of the present disclosure]
Hereinafter, a method for manufacturing an optical fiber tape core wire according to an embodiment of the present disclosure and a specific example of an optical fiber tape core wire manufactured by this manufacturing method will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 7 .
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an optical fiber tape core wire manufacturing apparatus according to an aspect of the present disclosure, FIG. 2 is a perspective cross-sectional schematic diagram of the optical fiber core wire shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is shown in FIG. 4 is a plan view of the optical fiber tape core wire shown in FIG. 3; FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a method for measuring the adhesion force, and FIG. 6 shows the relationship between the illuminance linear velocity ratio, the adhesion force between the fiber colored layer and the common coating layer of the optical fiber tape core wire, and the loss characteristic. 7 is a table, and FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of an optical fiber tape core wire showing a state in which a common coating layer is peeled off from the optical fiber core wire.

[Method for manufacturing optical fiber tape core wire and manufacturing apparatus for optical fiber tape core wire]
An optical fiber ribbon manufacturing apparatus (hereinafter referred to as a "fiber ribbon manufacturing apparatus") 10 includes, in order from the upstream side, a fiber feeding device 11, an overhead guide roller 12, a coating device 13, and an ultraviolet irradiation device. It comprises a device 14 , a guide roller 15 , a delivery capstan 16 , a winding tension control dancer roller 17 , an intermittent processing device 18 and a winding device 19 .

The fiber core supply device 11 has a number of reels 11a and dancer rollers 11b corresponding to the number of core wires of the optical fiber ribbon 100 to be manufactured (12 in this embodiment), and guide rollers 11c.
An optical fiber cable 110 is wound around the reel 11a.
The optical fibers 110 unwound from the respective reels 11a are each given a tension of several tens of gf by the dancer rollers 11b, and aligned on one arrangement surface when passing through the guide rollers 11c.

The optical fiber core wire 110 wound on the reel 11a is formed of a glass fiber 111 and a fiber coating layer 112 covering the outer circumference of the glass fiber 111, as shown in FIG.

The glass fiber 111 is made of quartz glass and has a core and a clad.
Also, the standard outer diameter of the glass fiber 111 is, for example, 125 μm.

The fiber coating layer 112 is composed of a primary resin layer 112a, a secondary resin layer 112b, and a fiber colored layer 112c.
The primary resin layer 112a is a coating layer formed with an outer diameter of about 190 μm to 200 μm, for example, and made of a soft UV curable resin with a relatively low Young's modulus.
The secondary resin layer 112b is formed with an outer diameter of about 240 μm to 250 μm, for example, and is a coating layer made of a hard ultraviolet curing resin having a relatively high Young's modulus, for example.

The fiber colored layer 112c is formed with a thickness of about 3 μm, for example, and is a coating layer made of, for example, ultraviolet curable ink.

The optical fiber core wires 110 let out from the core wire supplying device 11 are further collected by the directly above guide rollers 12 and sent to the coating device 13 .

The coating device 13 coats the optical fiber core wires 110 with an ultraviolet curable resin for forming a common coating layer 120 which will be described later.
The optical fibers 110 inserted through the coating device 13 are guided by nipples in the coating device 13 and arranged in a desired arrangement.
Then, it is sent to a die in the coating device 13 and coated around the aligned optical fiber core wires 110 with an ultraviolet curable resin supplied from a pressurized resin tank 13a.

The ultraviolet irradiation device 14 has a quartz tube 14a through which 12 optical fiber core wires 110 coated with an ultraviolet curable resin are inserted.
The ultraviolet irradiation device 14 irradiates the twelve optical fibers 110 in the quartz tube 14a with ultraviolet rays.
The ultraviolet curable resin cured by irradiation with ultraviolet rays becomes the common coating layer 120, and the optical fiber ribbon 100 of 12 cores is produced as shown in FIG.

The optical fiber ribbon 100, which has been irradiated with ultraviolet rays by the ultraviolet irradiation device 14 and whose ultraviolet curable resin has been cured, passes through a guide roller 15, a delivery capstan 16, a take-up tension control dancer roller 17, and an intermittent processing device 18. , to the winding device 19 .

The intermittent processing device 18 uses a cutting roller (not shown) to make periodic cuts 121 penetrating the common coating layer 120 between predetermined optical fiber core wires 110 of the optical fiber tape core wire 100 in the thickness direction. processing”.
As a result, the optical fiber tape core wire 100 has a connecting region 130 connecting adjacent optical fiber core wires 110 and separating adjacent optical fiber core wires 110 as shown in FIG. Non-connecting regions 140 are intermittently formed in the longitudinal direction.
Therefore, the optical fiber ribbon 100 is a so-called "intermittent ribbon".

The winding device 19 has a guide 19a and a bobbin 19b.
The optical fiber ribbon 100 that has been made into the intermittent tape core by the intermittent processing device 18 is wound around a bobbin 19b through a guide 19a in a winding device 19. As shown in FIG.

[Adhesion between the fiber colored layer of the optical fiber ribbon and the common coating]
Through intensive research, the present inventors have found that intermittent It is said that the common coating layer 120 is less likely to peel off from the fiber coating layer 112 (the fiber colored layer 112c (that is, the optical fiber core wire 110)) during processing, and the loss characteristics when the optical fiber tape core wire 100 is wound around the bobbin are reduced. I found new knowledge.

The "average value of adhesion between the fiber colored layer 112c of the optical fiber tape cable core 100 and the common coating layer 120" as used herein means, as shown in FIG. A test piece 200 in which a colored layer 210 having a thickness of 3 μm formed under the same curing conditions as the common coating layer 120 is coated with a resin layer 220 having a thickness of 10 μm formed from the same material as the common coating layer 120 under the same curing conditions. is prepared, and when the indenter I is pushed into the test piece 200 by 20 μm in the thickness direction from the resin layer 220 side and moved in the horizontal direction at a speed of 1 mm per minute, the force in the horizontal direction when the resin layer 220 is peeled off Average value.

The term "loss characteristics of the optical fiber ribbon 100" used herein refers to the result of measuring the loss with an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) while the optical fiber ribbon 100 is wound around a bobbin. A smaller loss than the pass criteria loss value is indicated by "-", and a larger loss is indicated by "+".
The larger the number of "-", the smaller the loss, and the larger the number of "+", the larger the loss.

FIG. 6 shows the relationship between the average adhesion force between the colored fiber layer 112c of the optical fiber ribbon 100 and the common coating layer 120 and the loss characteristics of the optical fiber ribbon 100 found by the present inventors. Show relationship.
As shown in FIG. 6, it can be seen that the loss is small when the adhesion between the fiber colored layer 112c of the optical fiber ribbon 100 and the common coating layer 120 is 99.9 mN or more.
That is, if the average adhesion force between the fiber colored layer 112c of the optical fiber ribbon 100 and the common coating layer 120 is 99.9 mN or more, the optical fiber core of the common coating layer 120 as shown in FIG. Delamination to the wire 110 is suppressed.

[Irradiance Linear Velocity Ratio and Adhesion between Fiber Colored Layer of Optical Fiber Tape and Core Wire and Common Coating]
Furthermore, the present inventors have made intensive research and found that in the process of irradiating ultraviolet rays from the ultraviolet irradiation device 14, the fiber colored layer 112c and the common coating layer 120 of the optical fiber tape core wire 100 are reduced by lowering the illuminance linear velocity ratio. We found a new finding that the average value of the adhesion between the

The term "irradiance/linear velocity ratio" as used herein means a value obtained by dividing the irradiation intensity of ultraviolet rays from the ultraviolet irradiation device 14 by the linear velocity of the core wire of the optical fiber tape, and multiplying the length of the quartz tube. can be expressed as

Here, γ is the illuminance linear velocity ratio [J/cm ² ], E is the irradiation illuminance of ultraviolet rays [W/cm ² ], and V is the linear velocity of the optical fiber tape core wire [m/min]. , L is the length [m] of the quartz tube.

FIG. 6 shows the relationship between the illuminance/linear velocity ratio found by the present inventors and the average value of adhesion between the fiber colored layer 112c of the optical fiber ribbon 100 and the common coating layer 120. As shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 6, when the illumination linear velocity ratio is 10.8 J/cm ² or less, the average value of adhesion between the fiber colored layer 112c of the optical fiber ribbon 100 and the common coating layer 120 is 99. .9 mN or more.
That is, when the linear velocity ratio of illumination is 10.8 J/cm ² or less, the average adhesion force between the colored fiber layer 112c of the optical fiber ribbon 100 and the common coating layer 120 is 99.9 mN or more. The separation of the common coating layer 120 from the optical fiber core wire 110 as shown in FIG. 7 is suppressed.

The optical fiber tape core wire 100 thus obtained has an average adhesive strength of 99.9 mN or more between the fiber colored layer 112c of the optical fiber core wire 110 and the common coating layer 120, so that the optical fiber Since the common coating layer is difficult to separate from the fiber colored layer of the optical fiber core wire when cutting the optical fiber core wires of the tape core wire, when the intermittently processed optical fiber tape core wire is wound around the bobbin, the common It is possible to suppress the degradation of the optical properties of the optical fiber due to the entrapment of the coating layer fragments.

[Modification]
Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above.
Moreover, each element provided in the above-described embodiments can be combined as long as it is technically possible, and a combination of these is also included in the scope of the present invention as long as it includes the features of the present invention.

For example, in the present embodiment, the optical fiber tape core wire 100 is formed from 12 optical fiber core wires 110, but the number of optical fiber core wires constituting the optical fiber tape core wire is limited to this. Any number may be used as long as it is plural.

For example, in the present embodiment, the outer diameter of the optical fiber core wire 110 is approximately 250 μm, but the outer diameter of the optical fiber core wire is not limited to this. good.

Further, the "illumination linear velocity ratio" in the present embodiment is defined by fixing the linear velocity of the optical fiber tape core wire, adjusting the irradiation illuminance of ultraviolet rays by the ultraviolet irradiation device 14, or by adjusting the irradiation illuminance of ultraviolet rays by the ultraviolet irradiation device 14. may be fixed to adjust the drawing speed of the optical fiber tape core wire, or the irradiation intensity of the ultraviolet rays from the ultraviolet irradiation device 14 and the drawing speed of the optical fiber tape core wire may be adjusted.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 10: ribbon fiber manufacturing device 11: fiber core supply device 11a: reel 11b: dancer roller 11c: guide roller 12: directly above guide roller 13: coating device 13a: Resin tank 14 . Device 19a... Guide 19b... Bobbin

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100... Optical fiber ribbon 110... Optical fiber cable 111... Glass fiber 112... Fiber coating layer 112a... Primary resin layer 112b... Secondary resin layer 112c... Fiber coloring Layer 120... Common covering layer 121... Cut 130... Connection area 140... Non-connection area

200... Specimen 210... Colored layer 220... Resin layer I... Indenter

Claims (3)

An optical fiber tape core wire in which a plurality of optical fiber core wires having a glass fiber and a fiber coating layer covering the outer periphery of the glass fiber are arranged in parallel and the plurality of optical fiber core wires are integrated with a common coating layer. hand,
An optical fiber tape core wire, wherein an average adhesion force between the fiber coating layer of the optical fiber core wire and the common coating layer is 99.9 mN or more. The common coating layer is intermittently cut,
3. A connection region connecting the adjacent optical fiber core wires and a non-connection region separating the adjacent optical fiber core wires from each other are intermittently formed in the longitudinal direction. 2. The optical fiber tape cord according to 1. An optical fiber in which a plurality of optical fiber core wires having a glass fiber and a fiber coating layer covering the outer periphery of the glass fiber are arranged in parallel and the plurality of optical fiber core wires are integrated with a common coating layer made of an ultraviolet curable resin. A method for manufacturing a ribbon cord,
A method for manufacturing an optical fiber tape core wire, wherein the plurality of glass fiber core wires coated with the ultraviolet curable resin are irradiated with ultraviolet rays so that the illuminance linear velocity ratio is 10.8 J/cm ² or less.

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